Last week I shared about the first three days of medical clinics we held on a recent trip to India (read the article here), where we went to minister specifically to the Tiger Widows, but also to the local communities.  After the first three days of clinics in a single location, a door opened up for us to go meet with some of the Tiger Widows more directly.  This was wonderful news, as most of the team had come with the express purpose of ministering to these forgotten women in mind.

For those who don’t know, India still functions on what is known as the “caste” system, which is basically a cultural hierarchy that is partly hereditary.  Most cultures have them, but in India, especially from a Hindu background, it is more deeply ingrained than some.   In this particular system men are more valuable than women, and if a husband dies the widowed wife cannot remarry, and generally sinks into poverty.  The Tiger Widows’ husbands have been killed over time by Bengal tigers while working out in the forest, leaving these women, who sometimes are young women who have children, destitute and unable to change their station in life.  In other cases, the women are older and have been widowed for a long time, so in their old age, they have no one to take care of them except for some of the other younger widows.    When we were informed we would be able to go meet and spend time loving and serving more of these women, our hearts jumped at the opportunity.

There have been others over time who have either used the idea of serving the widows for personal gain, using these women’s tragedies for personal publicity, or who have not followed through on their promises to help them, so some of those in government involved with helping these women had put up a hurdle for us to see and minister to them.  The condition to love these women in person was to bring a gift of a sari or blanket to each widow.

We were happy to do this.  Actually, we were all delighted with the idea of giving a sari or blanket to each one of these precious women.  What better way to tangibly show them love is there?  A single blanket or sari wasn’t super expensive, but when you start talking about 750 widows, the costs add up quickly.  As none of the costs of these gifts were included in the initial trip budget, from the time we found out about it on the third day, we had 12 hours to raise $3,000 to be able to buy the gifts for these women that next day.

We all prayed, and a few of us took to social media to raise money.  Within the twelve hours, we had raised 2/3 of the total.  Over the next number of hours another $500 came in from donations online, and the team pooled our money for the remainder.  I am pleased to say that followers of this blog and my Facebook feed contributed about $1,000 of the total.  Thank you so much to everyone who gave for the critical need, as it allowed us to minister the power and love of God to those women.  Let me tell you what that money did!

On the fourth day, we drove a few hours from where we were staying to a remote church meeting-place where some of the women were gathered.  When I say “church meeting-place”, what I mean is that it consisted of a roof with no actual walls.  We held another medical clinic there, and we preached the gospel to these women, gave them saris, washed their feet, prayed for them, and just spent the day with them.  Sometime during this day, we were invited to visit homes of some of the women who were paralyzed and pray for them, so four of us and a local pastor went to pray for them.  There were two homes we visited, one nearby where the woman had a stroke and regained strength and movement to her affected side.  The other woman’s home was further out, so we walked about ten to fifteen minutes to her home.

Heading to pray for the paralyzed woman

The path was brick, about six to eight feet wide, and we were led by a young woman, presumably also a widow.  She took us down this path for a while, passing a few houses and ponds and numerous fields of rice as we went.  We turned down another path, continued for a time, then turned again down what was more of a long grassy embankment between fields than any kind of actual road or path.  The area was quite beautiful, and fairly quiet.  There were no sounds of road traffic which I am so accustomed to hearing living in a big city in the States, so the sounds we heard were those of individuals, animals, and just creation as a whole.

We arrived at the second house and were invited inside by the family.  This house was basically a mud-and-stick construction with fabric for some of the outer walls.  The five of us took our shoes off and came inside to see this woman, paralyzed from the waist down, laying on the thinnest of mats, basically just thick enough for her not to be touching the ground and providing no comfort or padding whatsoever.  Her countenance was dim, she seemed mentally dull, and appeared to be in constant pain.  Her neck was also tighly locked, and she was unable to turn her head from side to side.

We laid hands on her and began to pray, then had her try to move her limbs.  She was able to move her legs some after we prayed for a few minutes, regaining some gross motor movement, but at some point we saw no further improvement.  Tyler had the pastor share the simple gospel message to her, while her family was all gathered around listening as well.  As the pastor spoke in Bengali, sharing with her about Jesus loving her and dying on the cross for her sins, this old grandma turned her head to the right to look at him more directly.

In case you missed that, this woman’s neck was locked.  I personally palpated it and attempted to perform range of motion, and there was literally no motion.  While she was hearing the message of the gospel, Jesus touched her neck and she regained movement that she did not have five minutes prior.  The pastor invited her to pray for Jesus to become the Lord of her life, and after she prayed, her countenance visibly changed.  She went from being dull and slow to smiling and having a brightness about her. We prayed again, and while we saw no further noticeable healing, it was evident that she had received a touch from heaven.

Later on, we saw her countenance dim down again, presumably due to the demonic trying to re-exert control over this woman they had been able to manipulate her entire life.  You see, in India, gods and goddesses are a known commodity.  Everyone knows they exist and that their power is active.  Thus, when we preach Jesus, the God above all other gods, the God who is kind, the only God who heals, the only God who gives his own life in exchange for ours, they have no problem believing us, unlike many here in the United States who doubt even the existence of the supernatural realms.  We prayed for her once more, thanked her and the family for inviting us into their home, and headed back to the group.  This was by far my most memorable and favorite time on this entire trip.

Almost 100% of the women raised their hands to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior

The next day we held another medical clinic with many hundreds of widows, one of the team, Sung, preached a simple yet profound gospel message, and almost every widow present raised her hand when invited to accept Jesus.  We treated their medical problems, and yet again, Jesus healed those we were unable to help medically.  Jesus was present in the footwashing, the salvation message, the medicine, giving blankets to each woman, feeding them lunch, and every aspect of the day.  One woman, crying, told a team member “you have loved me more than my gods ever have.”  That is exactly what we came to do—provide an active, living demonstration of the love that Jesus has for each of these precious women.

Our short-term trip did a lot of good, I believe, but there is also an ongoing need that we are unable to meet with short-term trips.  One program that the local pastors have set up for these women is a tailoring program.  This program teaches the widows how to produce clothing, giving them a skill so they can run their own businesses and become self-sufficient through self-employment, one of the few things the caste system cannot shut them out of.  We were able to visit where this program is run, and the sewing machines were donated during a prior mission trip.  To date, 20 have finished and 32 are currently enrolled in the program.  It costs about $30 USD a month per widow, and 6 months to train them.

In order to be truly independent, however, each widow who has completed the training needs her own sewing machine.  The 20 women who have completed the program are still waiting on machines before they can start their businesses, and each sewing machine costs $180 USD.  Furthermore, the location the training is currently being done at is temporary, and land has been donated for a permanent training center to be built, which costs another $30,000 USD to build.  For all 52 women to receive a machine, the total cost is $7,800.  God was able to raise $3,000 for these women in 12 hours, so I firmly believe that God not only can, but wants to provide a machine for each of these women.***

Please pray and ask God how you are to partner with The Kings of Eden and Global Mercy Foundation India for their tailoring program.

Ten people giving $15 each or one person each month for 10 months is a single sewing machine.  A one-time gift of any amount is fine, but they also need ongoing partners to help fund the women as they go through the program as well. There are three ways you can send money to help:

1.  A Gofundme fundraiser that will be sent to the ministry overseeing this work.

2.  Send money via Paypal to The Kings of Eden, marked with a note for the widows’ tailoring program.  We will forward 100% of the money to the local ministry for the widows.

3. Contact Global Mercy Foundation directly (a 501(c)3 nonprofit) and donate with a note marked for the widows’ tailoring program.  For more information, and occasional updates about the tailoring program, you can visit their Indian sister-ministry at Global Mercy Foundation India.

After being there with these women, it strikes me more than it ever has before how even just a one-time donation can be a life-changer for not just a single woman, but for potentially her friends and family.  If a young widow has children, she will be able to afford to raise them well, and if she is tending to other widows as well, she will have the resources to help care for them too.  Furthermore, this program is a great outreach method to reach these forgotten women for Jesus.

These two days with the Tiger Widows were incredibly special to me.  It was a joy to get to minister to them, tend to their physical needs, both medical and nonmedical, and above all, to see them changed by the love of Jesus Christ, working healings and miracles through the power that only He has to give.

In the next and final installment of the India 2018 Mission Trip, I will tell you about the Dump Yard Children, the healings God did there (including a young man healed of leprosy), and the work God is doing in that area of Kolkata, as well as a “surprise” ministry opportunity on the plane ride home.  Check in next week to hear the final details of this amazing trip!

***please note these prices are close estimates and not exact, as it depends on the current exchange rate of dollars to rupees, which is roughly $1 : 70Rs right now.